Did you know that worldwide forests each year absorb 30% of the CO2 emitted globally by fossil fuels and are huge carbon sinks, thus contributing to climate change mitigation and storing carbon in different pools (i.e., biomass, soil, dead organic matter, or litter)? However, when a forest is degraded with many dead, fallen and damaged trees, it does not remove enough CO2 from the atmosphere to compensate the emissions due to the decomposition of dead trees and soil organic matter.

Did you know that Denmark has a relatively low forest cover of 14 percent, but nonetheless has great ambitions regarding the ecosystem services they wish those forests to provide? All the more reason to understand more about how they integrate different forest functions into forest management.

I had the chance to find out more about Danish sustainable forest management – or Close-to-Nature Silviculture, as the Danes would call their particular brand – when I participated in the most recent meeting of the European Network INTEGRATE , which is currently chaired by the Danish Nature Agency.

French forest professionals visit forest enterprise in Germany

Within European Forest Institute, we frequently organize Exchange of Experts (EoE) to share knowledge on integrative forest management concepts. With foresters from the French Office National des Forêts, we recently co-organised and participated in an EoE addressing nature conservation managers, forest contractors and representatives from local municipalities. In a two-day excursion event they were introduced to the integrative forest management concept applied in the Bavarian State Forest Enterprise of Ebrach, Germany.

Do you know that kid whose parents want it to excel at music and to take piano classes at the age of six? Only to then also get enrolled at the local football club, arts class, scouting, ballet, mathematics tutoring class, swimming and theater lessons? Well, that kid is the forest.

On 11-12 July 2019, nine journalists from six media teams visited the Białowieża Forest to attend the ‘Sound Co-Lab Reporting’ – a workshop introducing audio storytelling techniques to report on forest-related issues. The workshop was part of the Lookout Station which aims to bridge the gap between science and media and bring innovation to newsrooms. The event was organized in collaboration with EUFORGEN to bring forest genetics onto the map of interconnected issues needed to decipher today’s complex problems.

Białowieża Forest, a UNESCO-protected site on the border between Poland and Belarus, is known worldwide for its high conservation value and for a history of controversy over conservation and forest management.

A devastating combination of heat,
drought, fire, storms and beetle plagues have destroyed a remarkable amount of
forest area in Germany, as well as in many countries across the globe. To discuss how this affects Germany’s forests and the different measures
to counteract the impact of such threats, the Federal Agriculture Minister,
Julia Klöckner, convened a Forest Summit on 25 September 2019 in Berlin. On the
occasion of the summit, several institutions have published their own position
to point out their perspective of what is needed to strengthen climate-resilient
forests.

Besides its undoubtedly high value
for nature ecosystem services, forests are the largest terrestrial carbon sink
we have, and are regarded as highly important for some economies. Last two
years, however, many forest owners have faced financial troubles.

On 15 May, Malgorzata Blicharska (Uppsala University) presented the findings of the Białowieża Science Initiative in the Permanent Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to the European Union in Brussels. EFI researchers, together with other representatives from academia, policy, forestry, nature conservation agencies and media debated on how to use the lesson learnt from the BiałowieżaForest for other areas in Europe facing similar challenges.

“Deadwood has a major role for the conservation of saproxylic species and contributes to carbon sequestration, nutrient supply, natural regeneration and protection against falling rocks.” (Lachat et al., 2013:92)*

A substantial amount of literature on the importance of deadwood in
Central European forests has been available providing partial recommendations
to enhance deadwood-dependent biodiversity. However, a comprehensive review of
science- and forestry experts-based recommendations effectively enhancing
deadwood bearing in mind operational implications has not been presented in
international literature.

During the meeting of the European Network Integrate in Toruń, Poland, Sanna Kasurinen, from the Finnish Forest Centre, presented the METSO-programme, an initiative aiming to halt the ongoing decrease of biodiversity of forest habitats and species in Finnish forests. The Forest Biodiversity Programme in particular addresses private forest owners. The overall objective is that based on a voluntary agreement, nature conservation is enhanced and communication improved on biodiversity of forest habitats and ecosystem services amongst stakeholders.

Posts navigation

Sidebar

Welcome to the Resilience Blog

The Resilience Blog is published by European Forest Institute’s Resilience Research Programme, which focuses on forest-related risks such as climate change and the role of forests and trees in urban areas.

We post both in English and German to address local and international readers.

Our articles make no claim to completeness and do not necessarily represent the opinion of EFI.